(Not) Alone in Hong Kong

Last week I mentioned that my job can involve a lot of walking… and doing so on a broken foot was tough. Needless to say, after a full day of work, by the time I got back to the hotel, I was ready to put my foot up, throw some ice on it, and crash. Anyone that knows me, knows that this is totally not my style. I like to get out and explore, and really experience a place… so you can imagine this was very disappointing for me to be in a totally new place, and be confined to my hotel room. Luckily, for me, my hotel room had an interesting view!

Hong Kong is referred to as one of the most densely populated cities in the world (besting New York City), and one of the most vertical cities in the world. Over half of the city’s 7.1 million people live and work about the 15th floor. Isn’t that wild? If we think about how much of our lives we spend either at home, or at work, and then consider that all those people in Hong Kong do so 150 feet in the air (or much higher in some cases), it’s crazy isn’t it? Well, to my mind, anyway.

Well, since I couldn’t go out and explore, I decided to just watch the city around me. My room was in a hotel right downtown on Hong Kong Island, in an especially dense area, and half of the room was floor to ceiling windows. It was extremely interesting to turn off all the lights, lift the blinds, and just stare out into the city. Not in a creepy, I’m looking in your window kind of way… but more like staring at a large fish tank. There was a constant movement it seemed; TVs flickering, shadows passing in front of windows, people coming and going from outside porches (which looked like they were about 6 square feet). It was sort of an odd feeling. Even though I was alone in my room, I couldn’t help but feel like I wasn’t alone at all, because I was surrounded by so many other people. I guess it was because I had so much time to just sit and think, but it was one of the few times in my life where I got a true sense of my scale on this big planet of ours.

–Dan Thompson

Hotel Indigo, Hong Kong

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